#major bill veal | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

swineweb · 4 months

Text

California’s Proposition 12 Takes Full Effect

Jim Eadie

January 4, 2024

California’s Proposition 12 farm animal confinement law took full effect at the beginning of the year, a little more than 5 years after voters approved it as a ballot measure in the state.

The law “bars sales in California of pork, veal and eggs from animals whose confinement failed to meet certain minimum space requirements,” according to reporting from Nate Raymond and Andrew Chung of Reuters. “The law mandates pig confinement spaces large enough to enable the animals to turn around, lie down, stand up and extend their limbs.”

While there has been significant pushback between when the law was approved and its full implementation this year (including a Supreme Court case in 2023 in which the court upheld Proposition 12), “major pork producers, restaurants and grocery stores, including Albertsons, Chipotle and Niman Ranch have already made the transition to be compliant with Prop 12,” according to the Humane Society of the United States.

“Companies like Hormel Foods, Clemens Food Group, Perdue, DuBreton farms and Tyson Foods have all publicly stated they can meet the demand for crate-free pork produced in accordance with Prop 12 standards,” the Humane Society said in a press release.

While many major pork producers have already complied with or plan to comply with Proposition 12, the National Pork Producers Council has said repeatedly it is concerned about the impact the law will have on hog farmers and how it will “create significant challenges for how producers operate and increasingly allows others to dictate how to raise pigs without any voice in the standards being imposed upon them.”

The NPPC says that 15% of domestic pork sales are to California and estimates that “the cost that farmers will need invest and pass onto consumers” is $3,500 per sow. “That means a producer owner operating a 4,000 sow farm will need to invest approximately $14 million to be compliant.”

Because of these concerns, and other concerns regarding interstate commerce, U.S. lawmakers continue to criticize and look to pass laws to address their concerns around Proposition 12.

KTVO’s Maddie Lee reports that “U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is renewing a push for federal legislation that would reverse California’s Proposition 12 when Congress reconvenes on January 8.”

Grassley, U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and others plan to reintroduce the Ending Agriculture Suppression Act (EATS Act), Lee wrote. The EATS Acts “would curb states’ ability to regulate agricultural products sold within their borders and is in part aimed at California’s Proposition 12, which sets housing standards for animals used for pork, veal, and eggs sold in the state,” according to Reuters reporting from Leah Douglas.

The passage of the EATS Act could face its own resistance, however, as more than 200 Congressional lawmakers opposed the Act last year, saying “the bill could ‘harm America’s small farmers, threaten numerous state laws, and infringe on the fundamental rights of states to establish laws and regulations within their own borders,’” according to Politico’s Garrett Downs.

#swineweb #swineweb news

1 note · View note

odinsblog · 3 years

Text

…Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure proposal left out the entirety of the care proposal, offered nothing on immigration, and featured startlingly little on climate; a reconciliation bill was still almost two months out. And yet the reception featured no four-letter words and no accusations of cowardice. According to sources who were in the meeting, Sheyman was particularly obliging, raising his hand to personally congratulate the administration on the deal.

“This is the meeting for progressives and progressive advocacy organizations,” said one adviser close to the White House. “The bill doesn’t include a single one of his priorities, and yet the tone is incredibly civil, nobody is even saber-rattling.” Biden, meanwhile, was soon pledging not to veto the bipartisan package if it came to his desk without a reconciliation bill full of other Democratic climate priorities, threatening the absence of major environmental spending to come.

Criticism has been in surprisingly short supply during Biden’s first six months, from a left flank that’s been somewhere between docile and unctuous. D.C. progressive groups have lavished praise on Joe Biden as the next FDR, and when he’s indulged some un-FDR-like tendencies, they’ve continued lavishing. “The idea of Joe Biden being FDR 2.0 was just a message point without a body of work to back it up,” Murshed Zaheed, progressive political consultant and former political director of CREDO, told me. “They just desperately needed the folks who were fired up.”

The result has been a progressive flank that has been defanged in Bidenworld, unwilling to make public criticisms even as much of the legislative agenda has slipped away. Already, gun control, judicial reform, student debt relief, and much of health care and immigration reform have fallen by the wayside. Policing and criminal justice reform has bogged down in seemingly endless bipartisan negotiations, with Biden pushing no deadlines for action. Democrats have split on drug pricing, with moderates on the Hill chasing modest tweaks and progressives trying to go big to save hundreds of billions for additional fiscal spending. Tax reform, despite making it into the reconciliation bill, remains on the ropes. There’s no real plan to pass meaningful voting rights protection, which Biden admitted preemptive defeat on in a July speech. The PRO Act and some small percentage of immigration, like the $15 minimum wage before it, will be decided by the whims of the Senate parliamentarian. The president himself is one of the stronger remaining defenders of the filibuster. Yet the self-censorship and happy talk endure.

A DISEMPOWERED PROGRESSIVE FLANK during a Democratic administration is not a new phenomenon. One need look no further than President Biden’s former boss, President Obama, for precedent. Obama’s strategy to gag progressives relied on the asperity of his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, in a program former blogger Jane Hamsher once coined “the veal pen.” In a series of weekly meetings between progressive groups and administration officials called “Common Purpose,” Obama adviser Erik Smith, the White House comms team, and sometimes even Emanuel himself would impress upon progressive groups their duty not to criticize the White House’s priorities—on the bank bailouts, on health care—in the name of message discipline. This kept those groups in the veal pen, at risk of a cattle prod if they ventured out.

Occasionally, Emanuel would unleash his personal fury toward anyone even thinking of criticizing the Obama administration’s thoroughly unprogressive agenda, even though it directly contravened their own priorities. In one such meeting, Emanuel infamously called MoveOn “fucking retarded” for running radio ads against moderate Blue Dog Democrats who successfully downed progressive priorities in the health care package. Groups had to “earn their seat at that particular table by not bucking the White House,” as Hamsher wrote in 2009. Silence was the cost of access, and for at least a term and a half, it worked.

Read more: https://prospect.org/politics/how-joe-biden-defanged-the-left/

#politics #joe biden #how joe biden defanged the left #access politics #neoliberalism

76 notes · View notes

keywestlou · 3 years

Text

Ho Ho Yogi Bear

DAY 11…..Greece the First Time

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Key West Lou

Ho ho Yogi Bear! I am having a terrific time!

Donkeys have become a part of my life all of a sudden. First in Navaro when I discovered horse meat and donkey meat were sold in butcher shops for human consumption. Donkey was viewed to horse meat as veal is to cattle meat. Now donkeys in Santorini.

Before I made the trip, many told me to be sure to ride the donkeys up and down the hill. The hill that in reality is a mountain of lava.

I saw the donkeys yesterday for the first time. I was taking a walk along the other road. The road that runs between the cave hotel apartments and lesser accommodations. Actually the other side of the road is where the working people of Santorini live. Much like Stock Island is to Key West.

All of a sudden, I came upon eight donkeys on the side of the road. All saddled up and ready to go. What beautiful animals! I am a horse lover of sorts. The horses that race at Saratoga. Especially up close. Magnificent beasts. So too were these donkeys. Beautiful shiny coats. Ears standing straight up. Big bright eyes. Muscular legs. Very muscular.

These donkeys carry people up and down the side of a nearby lava mountain. On a path running along the side. Along a five foot wide path has been constructed 2,000 feet plus long. It consists of 500 plus steps. The steps of varying widths. A short 3 foot wall on the ocean side.

The ride did not appeal to me. I did not wish to be an ass on an ass. I was fearful of either the donkey or me or both of us falling over the wall. I raised that issue with the man in charge of the donkeys. I think I insulted him. He told me very firmly that no donkey or person had ever even fallen off the path into the ocean.

The path was made of dirt and rocks.

I had Nikos give me a ride in his car down the mountain.

The volcano sitting out in the water is like a magnet. It draws me to it. I have decided to visit the volcano in the next few days. I want to look into the opening and its depths. I want to view the smoke and sulfur and whatever else my eyes can see.

The volcano is not too high. Most of it sunk into the sea. So I should be able to walk to the top.

There is an added attraction. There are springs periodically spraying water and smoke. Baths from the emissions are available on site. I want to bathe in these waters. Supposedly healthful, I will be doing it merely for the experience.

Santorini is the largest of the several islands which were born 3,500 years ago when the volcano had its major eruption. It is big. How large, I am not sure. Larger than Key West I do know.

The whole island has a mere 13,000 permanent residents. Compared to Key West which has 19,000.

Santorini is the name of the whole island. There are several villages and towns located on the island. I am staying in Oia, one of those towns. People are nice here. Just as in Key West.

Sociable, helpful.

I spoke of beauty parlor proprietor Catherine Risvani yesterday. Catherine owns the only beauty shop in Oia. One to a town, I guess. Called Hair & Soul. It is a beautifully done small place. Two chairs, two sinks, a manicure station and a counter. Two lovely ladies working for her. Catherine gave me a manicure this week.

Catherine is lovely in appearance. A typical Grecian beauty. Tall, thin and blond. Hair swept up and somehow tied in back. Interestingly, I have yet to find a Grecian woman who wears her hair down. Catherine also has high cheek bones. Another trait of Grecian women.

The bill for the manicure was 20 euros. About $28 american money. I was out of euros. I asked Catherine if she took credit cards. No. So I took out one of my $100 bills and told her to hold it while I went to the ATM machine for euros. She would not take the $100. Strangers though we were, she trusted me. In a tourist town. Typical of the Greeks here.

Which brings me to Nikos and Maria. Proprietors of my cave accommodation. Nikos and Maria are around 60. Own the Filotera Cave Houses aka Filotera Villas. A superior accommodation. Consistent with historical Santorini.

They and their son Adonis work their asses off. They have staff, but work along with staff from very early morning to late at night.

When I first arrived and met Maria, she was in a dress and apron. Smiling always. She does not speak English. I no Greek. Yet we have had several conversations. Each of us has spoken our native tongue. We understood each other!

I figured after first meeting Maria that she was the typical Mama Mia. A dress and apron. Always cooking and cleaning. Always watching the grandchildren.

Was I wrong!

The next time I saw Maria she was in peddle pushers and a tee shirt. Directing the employees.

Nice people these two.

It was Maria’s birthday the day I arrived. She sent a piece of birthday cake to my rooms. Nikos picked me up at the airport. Nikos drives me where ever I have to go. And picks me up. Their caves are lovely and clean. Very clean. Take a look at them. www.filoteravillas.gr, www.filoteravillas.com and www.santorini.com/hotels/filoteravillas. These sites will give you a flavor of cave living. They will surprise you!

The second day here, their son Adonis showed up with a bottle of wine. He said it was from his father’s vineyards. A special brew. Please enjoy it. I did, the next day. A cross between a white and red. A distinctive special taste.

Yes, Nikos and Maria besides owning the cave villas also own a vineyard and wine producing facility on Santorini. They ship world wide.

Nikos and Maria live across that street I mentioned earlier. In a small apartment less accommodating than the caves. In November, it gets cold on Santorini. They move to their home on the other side of the island. When it gets colder, they move to their home in Athens. During the winter months, they generally take a one to two month trip to the Caribbean or South Pacific.

It gets better.

Santorini and the Greek isles are not the United States. Many amenities we are accustomed to do not exist or are not provided. Like my clothes getting washed and ironed.

I was warned before I embarked on this odyssey that such would be the case. I came prepared. Purchased shirts and shorts at Orvis. That special material that is light, easy to wash and dry. Generally requiring little or no ironing.

I wash my own clothes. For real. Easy. In the bathroom sink. Drop some dish washing fluid on the clothes. A bit of water. Wash with my hands. Then shake dry.

The clothes still need hanging. Dryers are not common place on the island. Could not hang the clothes in front of my cave accommodation. It would not look right nor would it be proper.

There are clothes lines across the street at the cheaper accommodation. I hung my first washing there to dry. When I returned that evening, Maria came out to greet me. She insisted on ironing my clothes. My savior in disguise!

If you ever plan to come to Santorini, stay with Nikos and Maria. You cannot do better. Their telephone number is 003022860 71110. Fax number 003022860 71555. E-mail [email protected].

Enough for today.

There is much still to share.

This afternoon I am going to a beach somewhere on this island. Where I am guaranteed seeing bare breasted women. And, if I am lucky, some bare assed ones.

Enjoy your day!

As I have said in the past, vaccine distribution to Monroe County and Key West is not good. We seem to be forgotten. It appears political pull helps in getting enough vaccine to take care of an area.

Monroe County and Key West seem to be lacking in that regard.

I am happy for the person in Pensacola who was reported to have had excellent service. Not the case here. And none of us are doing anything wrong!

This morning’s Citizens’ Voice had two interesting comments re vaccine distribution/availability.

“Citizens of Monroe County should be outraged that the Medical Center at Ocean Reef, a private club, was allowed to administer 4,000 vaccines that were not available to the public, only to club members. This represents over 85 percent of the vaccine provided Monroe County.”

“Now I know why after five tries I am unable to get an appointment for the vaccine: politics trumps health.”

Eugene Robinson is one one of the Washington Post’s finest columnists. He also has a touch of Key West in him. Every year, he and his wife spend one month in Key West. Normally January. They were not here in January. Probably the virus.

Robinson’s Washington Post column this morning is titled “To Rebuild the Grand Old Party, First Tear It Down.”

A passage from the column: “Before a sane, responsible political party can rise like a phoenix from the ashes of today’s dangerously unhinged GOP, there must be ashes to rise from. The nation is going to have to destroy the Republican Party to save it.”

Biden has been impressive so far. As he will continue to be. I have faith in the man.

He is moving fast. The stimulus package, foreign matters, vaccine, etc.

It is very true that you cannot please all of the people all of the time.

Biden spoke before the National Prayer Breakfast. Called out white supremacy and domestic terrorism. And a multitude of other things.

Brian Burch is the President of CatholicVote. After the Breakfast, Burch slammed him for backing abortion and transgenderism. I do not know if Biden mentioned either during his talk. I suspect not.

One old, the other relatively new. Burch forgets that Biden, as with any President, represents all the people and not just one segment.

John Kennedy had a similar problem. Directed primarily at his Catholic faith. His response simple and understandable: “Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s.”

Christopher Plummer died. An outstanding actor. His age at death 91. Did not pass away under normal circumstances. He fell and struck his head. The blow to his head resulted in his death.

One of Plummer’s most famous roles was that he performed in The Sound of Music.

His movies many. However, Plummer most enjoyed his Shakespearean performances. He considered himself a Shakespearean actor rather than a movie one. His famous Shakespearean parts were his performances in Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, and as Mark Anthony.

He won his first and only Oscar at age 82. He also was rewarded with 2 Tony and 2 Emmy Awards.

John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men was published this day in 1937.

Steinbeck had a marked influence on my young life. My parents had purchased several volumes of Steinbeck’s works. For their enjoyment, not mine.

I was about 10. The books attracted me.

I would sit in a huge easy chair in the living room. A thick red dictionary at my side.

The first work I read was Of Mice and Men. Obviously I did not understand everything. One thing the book did however was to increase my vocabulary and expose me to a world I did not know. Some of which I was happy not to have experienced.

Over a period of time, I also read The Grapes of Wrath and several other Steinbeck works whose names at the moment I cannot recall.

Looking back, the reading I did probably was not uncommon. There were no television or cell phones in those days. Yes, there was radio. However radio did not particularly turn me on except for baseball.

Enjoy you day!

Ho Ho Yogi Bear was originally published on Key West Lou

1 note · View note

terresdebrume · 5 years

Text

I am home

Well, I thought weddings were tiring before but let me tell you French weddings have nothing on Cambodian weddings (soft edition)!

I am currently slumped on my couch, waiting for meal delivery (and also maybe death, judging by the sting under my eyes xD) and vaguely thinking that I should maybe consider getting up to put my laundry out to dry (that will probably wait until I need to get down for my food, tbh).

Longer account of the past three days under the cut!

Things started pretty good on Thursday because no one was late or got lost or had major trouble, and the minivan was even at the rendez-vous point on time which, it being Cambodia, is not always a guarantee, even if we did book the van for our group. We strapped down for an 8 hours bus drive around 9:30pm and chatted a little bit before settling down and all would have been fine if, like the driver had driven like a reasonable person.

Which he did not.

Apparently (I couldn't see the dial) we drove at an average of fifty-ish kilometers per hours, sometimes sixty, which you just should not do on Cambodian roads, especially not at night, on account of

The poor state of the roads (especially considering the guy ditched the main road and went for the country roads, aka sometimes we were drivingon dirt trails more than actual roads)

Everyone drives but almost no one has a license, which means you get a lot of really funny behaviors like people driving without lights at dusk, people driving with their lights at maximum intensity all the time (including anti fog lights) or our own driver taking turns fast enough to make us all think about barrel rolls every time

Sometimes, a roaming animal appears! I'm pretty sure there's a veal out there who's still a little shaken from our encounter with it on Thursday night.

So, the trip was strange. The driver stopped about ever hour to go and pee (we nearly forgot one of our friends, Champey, at one point. He was lucky his girlfriend noticed his absence) but apparently didn't know a place where there were actual toilets, which is how at least one of our friends accidentally mooned a passing car and then a random and adorable woman ended up taking us to her home so we could pee at two in the morning.

(Side note, there is something really eerie about having about nine or ten people crossing a random family's main living space, motorbikes on the left and people asleep on the right, trying not to overheat in the warm layers they put on to fight off the chill of overeager air con and whispering about their misadventures in toilet-using while traveling and the perils of our driver).

At one point, we stopped to deliver a package (and also I think another dude who wasn't with us but whom the driver must have sold a ticket to on the side, because that's prety common in Cambodia) and then things mostly went in an uneventful, if really bumpy, way.

Although of course I think all of us would have appreciated it if the buss ride had NOT turned out to take 10 hours instead of the estimated eight.

Anyway, we got to Ratanakiri province mostly in time for the wedding (I think around seven ish?) and went to change. I had to limp because eight hours in a bus were hell on my left ankle, which I now know for certain is sprained, but other than that it went fine. We did a bit of washing up, changed, got ready, and rejoined the wedding... and waited.

And waited.

I swear, so much of being a guest in a khmer wedding is about waiting xD

From the outside, a lot of the ceremonies seemed to be essentially visual things. Julie & Channy (the marrying couple) had to change outfits throughout the day (Julie had EIGHT outfits to go through in a day! Plus hairdos!) and a lot of the ceremonies seemed to be mostly about taking a billion pictures of them under ever angle, slightly adjusting the pose and thentaking another billion pictures from there. There was also a LOT of talking, which I'm pretty sure doubled the length of everything and felt really unusual to me... and then more waiting.

My favorite part of the day was the last of the morning rites, during which the newlyweds are surrounded by their parents and the attending 'stable couples' and candles are passed around the circle of guests so they can pass their hands through/over the candle and send the flames of love toward the bride and groom. After that, anyone who wants it can go and tie a red string around the couple's wrists to wish their marriage longevity (the newlyweds are then supposed to keep the strings on at least three days).

I didn't go and do that, because I really had to go and prop my ankle up but also because I was embarrassed at not having anything to give as an offering (I mean, I know Julie & Channy wouldn't have minded, but I was still embarrassed). That is, honestly, my only regret throughout the day x)

Anyway, after this ceremony, which apparently the key one (as in the point where the couple is officially married) our group was shown to the place where we'd sleep at night and proceeded to 1. wash up a little and 2. collapse into a nap. We pretty much slept on the bare hardwood floor so I was anticipating an achy back when I woke up but that actually didn't happen at all which was a great plus!

Then around six, we changed back into our pretty utfits and went for dinner, which was delicious and greatly enjoyed. There was one more ceremony, which I didn't see, and then some dancing but at that point I went back to our sleeping spot because my ankle hurt and it's not like I was going to do any dancing xD

In the meantime, Champey (who took care of most of the dealing with the minivan driver) had gotten a call from the driver who said he wanted to leave at 4PM on Saturday, instead of 8pm like we'd planned. That was not exactly well met by the group (at least the French portion was pretty open about that. Khmer people tend to be more reserved about what they think, but I'm not sure they were entirely un-annoyed either) but since his argument was for security we thought it might actually be for the best. So, we agreed, but asked him to drive us to a nearby lake we wanted to visit on Saturday so we'd be on time. He was, apparently, insistent that we should be ready to depart at the set time, which is absolutely hilarious (in an ironic way) when you consider the propensity of khmer people in general to not be punctual at all xD

(That's an interesting culture gap tbh, and it would have been purely funny if we hadn't been peeved about his wanting to change the departure time and being difficult about our rendez-vous point in Phnom Penh the night before).

So, come Saturday morning, we took the bus at ten (maybe five past, mostly because of me, oops) went to the aforementioned lake and dealt with the usual khmer/foreigners price difference, then had to wait while someone (either the driver or the lake guards) refused to take the $20 bill they were given on the basis that it was 'too damaged' (it was not). And then, finally, WATER! :D

I'm a huuuuuge water baby, I could spent entire days in the water if I have someone or a book to pass the time with, so obviously that rejuvenated me in record time. We had a great time there, bathed a lot, ate a lot (the caramelized chicken was delicious) and I bought a shirt. It was really cool.

We were mostly done around 3:30pm, so we called the minivan so he'd come and get us, but when the driver and his wife arrived and opened the door, it turned out there were now two car engines there, one of which was in the way of entering and exiting the minivan. It took something like twenty minutes of insisting before the driver agreed to move it to the front, where his wife sat (she wasn't happy about it) because he tried telling us we'd only reserved 15 seats in an 18 seats minivan (wrong, we'd gotten the whole vehicle) and then apparently said the engines were for a nearby delivery (they were still with us when we reached Phnom Penh) and then the guys (minus me) had to move the engine up to the front themselves.

So that was fun.

The ride back to Phnom Penh was as bumpy as the ride out of it, but there was a lot more singing and aside from two really scared dogs there wasn't really anything of notice. We got proper toilet breaks this time (lucky for the periods-havers of the group) and even got to buy some bamboo rice on the way there, which was a really nice evening meal :D

After that, it was mostly a matter of waiting the ten hours to Phnom Penh, getting in tuktuks (in my case, with one of the group members who couldn't go home to her parents (or didn't dare ride alone?) at 2am) and crashing into bed.

And today, or mostly this afternoon, will be mostly dedicated to being a couch potato until bedtime as far as I'm concerned xD

#My Posts #Matt has a life #Shit from home #Matt lives in Cambodia #Cambodia

4 notes · View notes

jaz0516 · 5 years

Text

Ghent, Belgium

Hallo again ladies, men, and my nonbinary friends (thank you Jenna Marbles for giving me my introduction sentence), today I will be writing about another city Belgium. I have chosen Ghent Belgium. It is a university town and cultural hub. Its known for medieval architecture such as 12th-century Gravensteen castle and the Graslei.

The best time to visit Ghent is the summer. The weather during this time comfortable, the temperature stay in the 70s, and the trees are still green. Overall the weather throughout the year can be described as chilly and damp. Spring and fall tend to have fewer tourists and cooler temperatures. In the winter, temperatures drop to near freezing levels, which in turn keeps many visitors away.

Autumn (September-October)

During fall temperatures begin to fall into the 50s, driving away tourist throngs. If you pack accordingly this could be the perfect season to see the city. Plus, hotel prices tend to be lower after especially after summer.

October and November are the rainiest times of the year so you will definitely need an umbrella and even a rain jacket. Make sure to pack lots of warm clothes and to bundle up. October’s temperatures range from 54ºF (12ºC) during the day to 42ºF (6ºC) at night so dress warmly

Winter (November-February)

It's extremely cold and wet this time of year with average lows just above freezing and average highs in the mid-40s. You're sure to find some nice hotel deals, but you'll need to make sure that you bring a thick winter coat so you do not freeze.

Make sure to wear comfortable boots, a winter jacket, gloves, fluffy scarves, and wool socks. The key to surviving the winter is wearing layers to keep yourself warm. Temperatures range from 43ºF (6ºC) during the day to 32ºF (0ºC) at night.

Spring (March-May)

The city begins to thaw in April and May, and you begin to see more tourists during this time but not as much as it would be in the summer. Travelers this time of year may even be able to score a deal on their accommodations.

March is the driest month of the year, but it still rains about 8 days of the month so bringing an umbrella is still a good idea. Wear a jacket suitable for temperatures averaging from 48ºF (9ºC) during the day to 37ºF (3ºC) at night

Summer (June-August)

Ghent experiences its warmest weather between June and August. This comfortable weather usher in popular festivals and droves of travelers.

June is the sunniest time of the year in while August is the hottest, but it’s still fairly cool at an average of 68ºF (20ºC) during the day to 54ºF (12ºC) at night. Jeans and a long-sleeve shirt should be suitable for daytime, but for nighttime, pack a light jacket. There are tons of mosquitoes in the summer so bring mosquito repellent.

Ghent has various establishments to eat at. Consider visiting:

Volta is a cool restaurant housed in a vast converted turbine hall. The kitchen is run by a young chef, Olly Ceulenaere, who prepares a fabulous seven-course tasting €59 menu in the evening, with dishes such as crunchy white cabbage topped with smoked eel and parsley root.

JEF is a casual, minimalist diner. It's what the chef calls "real food", hearty portions of slow-cooked veal and belly of pork and oven-braised cod with shellfish and pumpkin.

Yuzu is a boutique showcasing the creations of local chocolatier Nicolas Vanaise. He makes his zen chocolates each morning in his own home. his chocolate truffles resemble calligraphy artworks, mixing strange combinations of flavors and textures, such as lemon and coffee.

Gruut is a renovated old industrial building that was changed into a bar and restaurant. The menu features hearty local favorites such as waterzooi, a tasty chicken stew, or stoverij, tender beef braised in beer.

Temmerman is the town's, favorite old-fashioned sweetshop. The shelves are lined with tempting jars of sticky toffees, fruit gums and liquorice, but what makes Temmerman so famous is its speculoos gingerbread and an array of eccentric candies – such as mammelokkers (breast lickers), or cuberdons, distinctive "red nose" raspberry jellies.

Table manners include:

To beckon a waiter or waitress raise your hand and make eye contact.

Keep your hands on the table at all times during a meal -- not in your lap. However, keep your elbows off the table.

Belgians are thrifty and do not appreciate waste. Finish all the food on your plate.

Knife and fork are placed side by side on the dinner plate at the 5:25 position when you are finished eating.

Service charges and value-added taxes are included in most bills (usually 15 percent), so tipping is not expected or necessary.

Things you might need to know if you visit Belgium:

In case of an emergency, call either 112 (the general European emergency number) or, even easier to remember, 100 (the Belgian number)

The European health insurance card will make sure you receive the same level of healthcare as the residents of that country. The card is individual so every member of your traveling family will need one. The EHIC is free of charge

You can easily get by with English. Belgians appreciate your effort to speak their language, but almost all the population speaks fairly good English

Belgium is a very safe and peaceful country ranking high in the global peace index. As a traveler, you shouldn’t find much trouble while traveling in Belgium, although, there’s been reported quite a few pickpocketing in the most touristy areas. With a few simple precautions, you should be fine.

You can use Debit cards almost everywhere in Belgium (mostly Visa and MasterCard), but credit cards aren’t as widely accepted. The smaller the retailer the higher the probability he won’t accept credit cards and/or even charge 5% for using it.

Tipping isn’t mandatory and you are not expected to always tip in restaurants. You should tip only if you want to reward a good service

Ghent is filled with such a diverse culture and has an abundance of attractions and places to visit. Consider visiting:

The belfry of Ghent is one of the three main towers in the historic heart of the city. Rising almost 300 feet (91 meters) to the sky, this tall structure is attached to the cloth hall, a former major marketplace. The belfry indicated the independent status of this once-powerful city; its bells used to warn against approaching danger or to announce celebrations.

St. Bavo’s Cathedral, was where the young Charles V was baptized. This massive cathedral is adorned with a large number of fabulous paintings, including what could be regarded as the greatest painting in all of Belgium—the “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb” by Jan van Eyck.

Graslei and Korenlei are some of the most gorgeous medieval waterfronts in Europe. The Graslei is the most spectacular of the two—best seen from the Korenlei—and consists of a row of magnificent guildhalls. This was actually Ghent’s very first harbor; nowadays, it’s a hugely popular place to hang out for locals and tourists alike.

Gravensteen Castle houses a superb medieval museum. The central keep can be climbed for rather extraordinary views over the city.

St Michael's Bridge, where you'll get a 360-degree perspective of the town's main attractions. These include the Old Fish Market, Castle of the Counts, and "Three Tower Row," all of which you can see in a panoramic cityscape

Overall:

Ghent seems to be an interesting location with lots of possible entertainment options. I hope this will be one of the locations that I will travel to over the summer.

Sources:

https://travel.usnews.com/Bruges_Belgium/When_To_Visit/

https://www.fromlusttilldawn.com/the-essentials-what-to-pack-for-bruges-belgium-in-winter-spring-summer-and-fall/

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/feb/10/top-10-food-shops-restaurants-ghent

https://www.traveldrafts.com/50-things-you-need-to-know-before-traveling-to-belgium/

https://europeupclose.com/article/top-5-attractions-in-ghent-belgium/

1 note · View note

clarencewardartlibrary · 3 years

Video

vimeo

In Conversation: Johnny Coleman, Antwoine Washington, and Kambui Olujimi

Join artists Johnny Coleman (Oberlin, Ohio), Antwoine Washington (Cleveland, Ohio), and Kambui Olujimi (New York, New York) and curator Nadiah Rivera Fellah on a virtual walk-through of the CMA exhibition New Histories, New Futures.

Together, they discuss how contemporary artists both engage with concepts of the past, present, and future and create artworks to revise history, combat stereotypes, and give image to new political possibilities.

This program is organized in tandem with the CMA exhibition New Histories, New Futures, on view at Transformer Station through September 12, 2021.

All exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Exhibitions. Major annual support is provided by the Estate of Dolores B. Comey and Bill and Joyce Litzler, with generous annual funding from Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., the Jeffery Wallace Ellis Trust in memory of Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, Ms. Arlene Monroe Holden, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, William S. and Margaret F. Lipscomb, Tim O’Brien and Breck Platner, the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Claudia Woods and David Osage.

All education programs at the Cleveland Museum of Art are underwritten by the CMA Fund for Education. We recognize the inaugural supporters for the CMA Fund for Education, with generous annual funding provided by an anonymous supporter, the M. E. and F. J. Callahan Foundation, Mr. and Mrs. Walter R. Chapman Jr., the Sam J. Frankino Foundation, Florence Kahane Goodman, Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn, the Lloyd D. Hunter Memorial Fund, Eva and Rudolf Linnebach, Dr. Linda M. Sandhaus and Dr. Roland S. Philip, the Veale Foundation, and the Womens Council of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is funded in part by residents of Cuyahoga County through a public grant from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture. This exhibition was supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council, which receives support from the State of Ohio and the National Endowment for the Arts.

#Johnny Coleman #Oberlin #Oberlin College #Oberlin College Art Department #Oberlin College Art Library #Art Library #CMA #Cleveland #Cleveland Museum of Art

0 notes

lawrencedienerthings · 4 years

Text

All Colorado eggs must be cage-free by 2025 under law passed to head off stricter ballot measure

#tensofthousands🐓 🎓 🤣 💆‍♂️ 🐣

Colorado News

The barns that rise up from the rural Colorado flatlands each hold tens of thousands of chickens, layered in steel cages that stack toward the ceiling. The floor of the cages tilts about 6 degrees, so when a hen lays an egg, it rolls downhill and onto a soft conveyor belt headed out of the barn.

About 5.5 million hens, mainly from four major egg producers in the state and mostly in Weld County, live in this conventional, caged housing. But not for much longer. Colorado egg producers were just handed a deadline by the state legislature to convert all hen housing to cage-free by 2025.

Egg producers estimate it will cost them about $30 per bird, totaling about $165 million for the industry in Colorado.

“The cost of converting is immense. It’s extraordinary,” said Jerry Wilkins, sales and marketing director at Morning Fresh Farms in Platteville, which estimated it will spend $24 million to put its 800,000 caged hens into cage-free housing. “Each producer is going to take a huge hit to make this conversion.”

Whether producers can withstand it “depends on what the egg market does over the next few years,” Wilkins said. Wholesale egg prices were an unprecedented $3 per dozen during the pandemic panic-buying spree, and stayed high through the Easter season. Now they’ve evened out at just above $1.

The Colorado legislature didn’t particularly want to pass this egg-producer ultimatum. How it all went down is a political tale whose characters include New York animal welfare advocates, retailers that no longer want to sell eggs from caged hens, and lawmakers who concluded that passing the law was the best way to protect Colorado’s livestock and agriculture industry.

Cage-free housing means hens can walk on the floor, use perches and go into nesting boxes to lay eggs. Each hen is required to have twice as much space as a hen in caged housing. (Photo provided by Morning Fresh Farms)

Capitol debate about egg-laying hens — though brief and overshadowed by the coronavirus-sparked budget crisis and a measure on police violence — included the terms: “mafia-style tactics,” “disgusting” and “strong-armed by special interests.”

That’s because lawmakers were told that if they didn’t pass the law, New York City-based World Animal Protection would move ahead on a ballot measure it wanted to place before voters in November. The measure not only would have required egg producers to transition to cage-free by the end of 2021 — three years sooner — but would have prohibited the sale in Colorado of calves raised in veal crates or pigs kept in cages while pregnant.

With the threat looming over egg producers’ heads, the Humane Society of the United States negotiated a deal.

Egg producers helped write the legislation requiring them to go cage-free by 2025 and World Animal Protection agreed it would yank its ballot measure. The Colorado Egg Producers took no official position on the legislation, and the New York animal welfare group submitted a letter during committee testimony that promised it would back down as soon as Gov. Jared Polis signed the legislation into law.

A bill-signing ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday in Longmont.

“I am distressed that that’s the way we do business in Colorado,” Rep. Jeni Arndt, a Democrat from Fort Collins, said during a House agriculture committee hearing. “I am distressed that it’s just an open quid pro quo. And also I worry about the precedent we’re setting if a special-interest group can come from out of state and say, ‘If you don’t run this legislation, we will.’”

Rep. Richard Holtorf, a rancher and a Republican from Akron, was fuming that outside interests were trying to “strong-arm the way we produce eggs.” He worried the price of eggs — considered a cheap source of protein — will rise.

“How do we prevent this assault on Colorado?” he asked. “They are not friends of agriculture,” Holtorf said of the animal welfare groups. “Let me tell you who they hurt the worst: the poor. Come down to southeastern Colorado if you want to see poor.”

Even the bill sponsor, Rep. Dylan Roberts, an Avon Democrat, made clear it wasn’t his idea, saying he was trying to help come up with a “Colorado solution” to the New York intrusion. He and others predicted the out-of-state group would have no trouble collecting the required signatures — about 124,000 — to get such a measure on the ballot.

State Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Avon, speaks at a news conference at the state Capitol on March 5, 2020. (Jesse Paul, The Colorado Sun)

And the ballot measure that would have given egg producers about one year to make a $165 million change likely would have passed, according to polling by the animal rights groups. A 2019 poll of 1,000 Colorado voters commissioned by the Humane Society of the United States found 70% of people are against keeping egg-laying hens in cages.

“Everyday people, when going out to vote, they will choose to make lives better for animals,” said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, headquartered in Maryland.

California easily passed Proposition 12 in 2018, requiring egg producers to switch to cage-free by the end of 2021. Massachusetts also voted overwhelmingly in favor of doing away with cages for laying hens. Other states — including Oregon, Washington and Michigan — have avoided a vote of the people by passing legislation similar to Colorado’s.

Retailers were already shifting to cage-free

The egg industry was headed toward cage-free anyway.

Consumers are demanding cage-free eggs, and major retailers — from Kroger, Safeway and Target to McDonald’s and Starbucks — have already vowed to stop selling eggs from caged hens by 2025 at the latest.

“Times have really changed to get us to this point,” Balk said.

The Humane Society has been in discussions with Colorado Egg Producers for nearly a year, looking for compromise, Balk said. “We both recognize the future is cage-free. We both recognize it’s going to take a phase-in to get there.”

The two animal welfare groups view cage-free hen houses as a step up from cages stacked in “layer barns,” but it’s “not utopia for these animals,” Balk said. Cage-free does not mean the hens are walking through a pasture in the sunshine — they are still inside a barn with artificial light and fresh air pumped in. It is perpetually springtime in the barns, with 16 hours of light per day.

Morning Fresh Farms of Platteville estimates it will spend $24 million in the next five years to convert its conventional barns to cage-free housing. The farm produces more than 30 million dozen eggs per year. (Photo provided by Morning Fresh Farms)

But unlike caged birds, cage-free hens can walk on the floor of the barn, use perches and scratches, and go inside nesting boxes to lay eggs. Industry standards typically require 144 square inches of space in a barn per cage-free hen, compared with 67 square inches for a caged hen.

Caged hens can walk to one end of a cage to drink water off a conveyor trough, and the other to eat chicken feed.

Both caged and cage-free hens lay about five to six eggs per week, and both are retired from production — typically that means they are sent to a rendering plant for pet food — within about two years.

A backyard hen, though, can live five to 10 years.

The two animal welfare groups were hardly “strong-arming” Colorado, Balk said. “Public sentiment is that farm animals should not be kept in cages,” he said. “Even the egg industry is saying, ‘Let’s reflect where the public is at.’”

Ben Williamson, programs director for World Animal Protection, which has 14 offices throughout the world, defended the New York nonprofit’s plan to insert itself in a debate about Colorado agriculture.

“We speak for animals wherever they suffer, whether in Colorado or Beijing,” he said. “We have no regrets about doing so.”

The group also had hoped to make change in two other agricultural industries by banning the sale of veal raised in cages and confinement of pregnant hogs in gestation crates. Those elements of the ballot measure were dropped in the compromise.

Colorado lawmakers in 2008 banned veal and hog producers from keeping their animals in crates so small they could not even turn around, but the sale of meat raised that way in other states is still allowed in Colorado.

That 2008 legislation, too, followed a threat of a ballot measure focused on veal, pregnant hogs and egg-laying hens.

Change was a matter of when, not if

Morning Fresh Farms, established in 1970, has more than one million laying hens and produces more than 30 million dozen eggs each year. The family-owned farm is trying to look at the bright side of the legislation — spending $24 million to put its 800,000 caged birds in cage-free housing will pump money into the local economy through construction costs, as well as create more farm jobs because the cage-free barns require more workers, Wilkins said.

Morning Fresh keeps six or seven hens per cage in its layered barn, where conveyors carry in water and grains, and carry out manure and eggs — in opposite directions. As soon as they’re laid, the eggs are transported to the production barn, where they are sanitized with ultraviolet light, checked for cracks, graded, placed in cartons and refrigerated for transport to grocery stores and restaurants.

Morning Fresh Farms of Platteville has 15 cage-free barns and more than 30 barns with conventional, or caged, housing for its egg-laying hens. The Weld County farm produces about 30 million dozen eggs per year. (Photo provided by Morning Fresh Farms)

The farm got its first cage-free barn in the early 2000s, back when production costs for cage-free eggs were about 40% higher than in conventional housing. Thanks to advancements in technology and design, it now costs only about 1 or 2 cents more per egg to produce cage-free eggs compared to conventional ones — after the capital outlay of building the new houses. The retail markup is another matter, of course.

The farm produces no free-range eggs, laid by hens living outdoors in a pasture. The reason is mainly safety-related — Colorado is in the migratory path of wild birds who fly south for the winter and north for the summer, Wilkins said. Outdoor hens could catch diseases, including avian influenza, from wild birds, and possibly infect the hens living in barns, he said.

Cage-free eggs arrived in Colorado in the early 1990s, but were still considered “designer” or “boutique” and available only in specialty grocery stores. “In the last 20 years, really, the cage-free has really taken off,” said Wilkins, who is also vice president of the Colorado Egg Producers.

Egg producers in Colorado have had an eye on California and other progressive states for years, realizing that Colorado is likely only a few steps behind. They knew after the 2008 ballot measure, and subsequent legislation that banned veal cages and gestation crates, that it was only a matter of time. House Bill 1343 seemed the best way forward, Wilkins said.

“It was not an ‘if’ they were coming back to Colorado. It was more of a ‘when,” Wilkins said. “The challenge with that ballot initiative was that it took any control out of our hands. We needed to be in control of our destiny.”

Our articles are free to read, but not free to report

Support local journalism around the state. Become a member of The Colorado Sun today!

$5/month

$20/month

$100/month

One-time Contribution

The latest from The Sun

All Colorado eggs must be cage-free by 2025 under law passed to head off stricter ballot measure

Littwin: In the end, Democratic voters accept the fact that Hick is Hick and somehow that is enough

How genetic sequencing is helping solve the mystery of coronavirus’ spread through Colorado nursing homes

Right-wing firebrand Lauren Boebert beats Trump-backed, 5-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton

Incumbents, slate backed by super PAC cash head to victory in run for Colorado statehouse

from https://ift.tt/38sIcGR https://ift.tt/2YMvjE4

#Straight News

0 notes

evita-shelby · 2 months

Text

So the bill veal one shot might still happen because according to the webiste for the 100th Bomb Group, his plane kept breaking down so most of his missions had him recalled back to the base.

And Diane/reader being so relieved he got the shitty fort because that means he doesn't end up getting captured or killed

#bill veal #major bill veal #masters of the air #bill veal x oc

0 notes

endenogatai · 4 years

Text

Europe’s PEPP-PT COVID-19 contacts tracing standard push could be squaring up for a fight with Apple and Google

A coalition of EU scientists and technologists that’s developing what’s billed as a “privacy-preserving” standard for Bluetooth-based proximity tracking, as a proxy for COVID-19 infection risk, wants Apple and Google to make changes to an API they’re developing for the same overarching purpose.

The Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) uncloaked on April 1, calling for developers of contacts tracing apps to get behind a standardized approach to processing smartphone users’ data to co-ordinate digital interventions across borders and shrink the risk of overly intrusive location-tracking tools gaining momentum as a result of the pandemic.

PEPP-PT said today it has seven governments signed up to apply its approach to national apps, with a claimed pipeline of a further 40 in discussions about joining.

“We now have a lot of governments interacting,” said PEPP-PT’s Hans-Christian Boos, speaking during a webinar for journalists. “Some governments are publicly declaring that their local applications will be built on top of the principles of PEPP-PT and also the various protocols supplied inside this initiative.

“We know of seven countries that have already committed to do this — and we’re currently in conversation with 40 countries that are in various states of onboarding.”

Boos said a list of the governments would be shared with journalists, though at the time of writing we haven’t seen it. But we’ve asked PEPP-PT’s PR firm for the info and will update this report when we get it.

“The pan-European approach has worked,” he added. “Governments have decided at a speed previously unknown. But with 40 more countries in the queue of onboarding we definitely have outgrown just the European focus — and to us this shows that privacy as a model and as a discussion point… is a statement and it is something that we can export because we’re credible on it.”

Paolo de Rosa, the CTO at the Ministry of Innovation Technology and Digital Transformation for the Italian government, was also on the webinar — and confirmed its national app will be built on top of PEPP-PT.

“We will have an app soon and obviously it will be based on this model,” he said, offering no further details.

PEPP-PT’s core ‘privacy-preserving’ claim rests on the use of system architectures that do not require location data to be collected. Rather devices that come near each other would share pseudonymized IDs — which could later be used to send notifications to an individual if the system calculates an infection risk has occurred. An infected individual’s contacts would be uploaded at the point of diagnosis — allowing notifications to be sent to other devices they had come into contact with.

Boos, a spokesman for and coordinator of PEPP-PT, told TechCrunch earlier this month the project will support both centralized and decentralized approaches. The former meaning IDs are uploaded to a trusted server, such as one controlled by a health authority; the latter meaning IDs are held locally on devices, where the infection risk is also calculated — a backend server is only in the loop to relay info to devices.

It’s just such a decentralized contacts tracing system that Apple and Google are collaborating on supporting — fast-following PEPP-PT last week by announcing a plan for cross-platform COVID-19 contacts tracing via a forthcoming API and then a system-wide (opt-in) for Bluetooth-based proximity tracking.

That intervention, by the only two smartphone platforms that matter when the ambition is mainstream app adoption, is a major development — putting momentum in the Western world behind decentralized contacts tracing for responding digitally to the coronavirus crisis, certainly at the platform level.

In a resolution passed today the European parliament also called for a decentralized approach to COVID-19 proximity tracking. MEPs are pushing for the Commission and Member States to be “fully transparent on the functioning of contact tracing apps, so that people can verify both the underlying protocol for security and privacy, and check the code itself to see whether the application functions as the authorities are claiming”. (The Commission has previously signalled a preference for decentralization too.)

However backers of PEPP-PT, which include at least seven governments (and the claim of many more), aren’t giving up on the option of a “privacy-preserving” centralized option — which some in their camp are dubbing ‘pseudo-decentralized’ — with Boos claiming today that discussions are ongoing with Apple and Google about making changes to their approach.

As it stands, contacts tracing apps that don’t use a decentralized infrastructure won’t be able to carry out Bluetooth tracking in the background on Android or iOS — as the platforms limit how general apps can access Bluetooth. This means users of such apps would have to have the app open and active all the time for proximity tracking to function, with associated (negative) impacts on battery life and device usability.

There are also (intentional) restrictions on how contracts tracing data could be centralized, as a result of the relay server model being deployed in the joint Apple-Google model.

“We very much appreciate that Google and Apple are stepping up to making the operating system layer available — or putting what should be the OS actually there, which is the Bluetooth measurement and the handling of crypto and the background running of such tasks which have to keep running resiliently all the time — if you look at their protocols and if you look at whom they are provided by, the two dominant players in the mobile ecosystem, then I think that from a government perspective especially, or from lots of government perspectives, there is many open points to discuss,” said Boos today.

“From a PEPP-PT perspective there’s a few points to discuss because we want choice and implementing choice in terms of model — decentralized or centralized on top of their protocol creates actually the worst of both worlds — so there are many points to discuss. But contrary to the behavior that many of us who work with tech companies are used to Google and Apple are very open in these discussions and there’s no point in getting up in arms yet because these discussions are ongoing and it looks like agreement can be reached with them.”

It wasn’t clear what specific changes PEPP-PT wants from Apple and Google — we asked for more detail during the webinar but didn’t get a response. But the group and its government backers may be hoping to dilute the tech giants’ stance to make it easier to create centralized graphs of Bluetooth contacts to feed national coronavirus responses.

As it stands, Apple and Google’s API is designed to block contact matching on a server — though there might still be ways for governments (and others) to partially workaround the restrictions and centralize some data.

We reached out to Apple and Google with questions about the claimed discussions with PEPP-PT. At the time of writing neither had responded.

As well as Italy, the German and French governments are among those that have indicated they’re backing PEPP-PT for national apps — which suggests powerful EU Member States could be squaring up for a fight with the tech giants, along the lines of Apple vs the FBI, if pressure to tweak the API fails.

Another key strand to this story is that PEPP-PT continues to face strident criticism from privacy and security experts in its own backyard — including after it removed a reference to a decentralized protocol for COVID-19 contacts tracing that’s being developed by another European coalition, comprised of privacy and security experts, called DP-3T.

Coindesk reported on the silent edit to PEPP-PT’s website yesterday.

Backers of DP-3T have also repeatedly queried why PEPP-PT hasn’t published code or protocols for review to-date — and even gone so far as to dub the effort a ‘trojan horse’.

#DP3T entered as a candidate to so-called PEPP-PT in good faith, but it is now clear that powerful actors pushing centralised databases of Bluetooth contact tracing do not, and will not, act in good faith.

PEPP-PT is a Trojan horse.

— Michael Veale (@mikarv) April 16, 2020

ETH Zürich’s Dr. Kenneth Paterson, who is both a part of the PEPP-PT effort and a designer of DP-3T, couldn’t shed any light on the exact changes the coalition is hoping to extract from ‘Gapple’ when we asked.

“They’ve still not said exactly how their system would work, so I can’t say what they would need [in terms of changes to Apple and Google’s system],” he told us in an email exchange.

Today Boos couched the removal of the reference to DP-3T on PEPP-PT’s website as a mistake — which he blamed on “bad communication”. He also claimed the coalition is still interested in including the former’s decentralized protocol within its bundle of standardized technologies. So the already sometimes fuzzy lines between the camps continue to be redrawn. (It’s also interesting to note that press emails to Boos are now being triaged by Hering Schuppener; a communications firm that sells publicity services including crisis PR.)

“We’re really sorry for that,” Boos said of the DP-3T excision. “Actually we just wanted to put the various options on the same level that are out there. There are still all these options and we very much appreciate the work that colleagues and others are doing.

“You know there is a hot discussion in the crypto community about this and we actually encourage this discussion because it’s always good to improve on protocols. What we must not lose sight of is… that we’re not talking about crypto here, we’re talking about pandemic management and as long as an underlying transport layer can ensure privacy that’s good enough because governments can choose whatever they want.”

Boos also said PEPP-PT would finally be publishing some technical documents this afternoon — opting to release information some three weeks after its public unveiling and on a Friday evening (a 7-page ‘high level overview’ has since been put on their Github here — but still a far cry from code for review) — while making a simultaneous plea for journalists to focus on the ‘bigger picture’ of fighting the coronavirus rather than keep obsessing over technical details.

During today’s webinar some of the scientists backing PEPP-PT talked about how they’re testing the efficacy of Bluetooth as a proxy for tracking infection risk.

“The algorithm that we’ve been working on looks at the cumulative amount of time that individuals spend in proximity with each other,” said Christophe Fraser, professor at the Nuffield Department of Medicine and Senior Group Leader in Pathogen Dynamics at the Big Data Institute, University of Oxford, offering a general primer on using Bluetooth proximity data for tracking viral transmission.

“The aim is to predict the probability of transmission from the phone proximity data. So the ideal system reduces the requested quarantine to those who are the most at risk of being infected and doesn’t give the notification — even though some proximity event was recorded — to those people who’re not at risk of being infected.”

“Obviously that’s going to be an imperfect process,” he went on. “But the key point is that in this innovative approach that we should be able to audit the extent to which that information and those notifications are correct — so we need to actually be seeing, of the people who have been sent the notification how many of them actually were infected. And of those people who were identified as contacts, how many weren’t.

“Auditing can be done in many different ways for each system but that step is crucial.”

Evaluating the effectiveness of the digital interventions will be vital, per Fraser — whose presentation could have been interpreted as making a case for public health authorities to have fuller access to contacts graphs. But it’s important to note that DP-3T’s decentralized protocol makes clear provision for app users to opt-in to voluntarily share data with epidemiologists and research groups to enable them to reconstruct the interaction graph among infected and at risk users (aka to get access to a proximity graph).

“It’s really important that if you’re going to do an intervention that is going to affect millions of people — in terms of these requests to [quarantine] — that that information be the best possible science or the best possible representation of the evidence at the point at which you give the notification,” added Fraser. “And therefore as we progress forwards that evidence — our understanding of the transmission of the virus — is going to improve. And in fact auditing of the app can allow that to improve, and therefore it seems essential that that information be fed back.”

None of the PEPP-PT aligned apps that are currently being used for testing or reference are interfacing with national health authority systems, per Boos — though he cited a test in Italy that’s been plugged into a company’s health system to run tests.

“We have supplied the application builders with the backend, we have supplied them with sample code, we have supplied them with protocols, we have supplied them with the science of measurement, and so on and so forth. We have a working application that simply has no integration into a country’s health system — on Android and on iOS,” he noted.

On its website PEPP-PT lists a number of corporate “members” as backing the effort — including the likes of Vodafone — alongside several research institutions including Germany’s Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute for telecoms (HHI) which has been reported as leading the effort.

The HHI’s executive director, Thomas Wiegand, was also on today’s call. Notably, his name initially appeared on the authorship list for the DP-3T’s White Paper. However on April 10 he was removed from the README and authorship list, per its Github document history. No explanation for the change was given.

During today’s press conference Wiegand made an intervention that seems unlikely to endear him to the wider crypto and digital rights community — describing the debate around which cryptography system to use for COVID-19 contacts tracing as a ‘side show’ and expressing concern that what he called Europe’s “open public discussion” might “destroy our ability to get ourselves as Europeans out of this”.

“I just wanted to make everyone aware of the difficulty of this problem,” he also said. “Cryptography is only one of 12 building blocks in the system. So I really would like to have everybody go back and reconsider what problem we are in here. We have to win against this virus… or we have another lockdown or we have a lot of big problems. I would like to have everybody to consider that and to think about it because we have a chance if we get our act together and really win against the virus.”

The press conference had an even more inauspicious start after the Zoom call was disrupted by racist spam in the chat. Right before this Boos had kicked off the call saying he had heard from “some more technically savvy people that we should not be using Zoom because it’s insecure — and for an initiative that wants security and privacy it’s the wrong tool”.

“Unfortunately we found out that many of our international colleagues only had this on their corporate PCs so over time either Zoom has to improve — or we need to get better installations out there. It’s certainly not our intention to leak the data on this Zoom,” he added.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425 https://ift.tt/3agrPwi via IFTTT

#IFTTT #RSSMix.com Mix ID 8204425

0 notes

magzoso-tech · 4 years

Text

Europe’s PEPP-PT COVID-19 contacts tracing standard push could be squaring up for a fight with Apple and Google

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/europes-pepp-pt-covid-19-contacts-tracing-standard-push-could-be-squaring-up-for-a-fight-with-apple-and-google/

Europe’s PEPP-PT COVID-19 contacts tracing standard push could be squaring up for a fight with Apple and Google

The Pan-European Privacy-Preserving Proximity Tracing (PEPP-PT) uncloaked on April 1, calling for developers of contact tracing apps to get behind a standardized approach to processing smartphone users’ data to coordinate digital interventions across borders and shrink the risk of overly intrusive location-tracking tools gaining momentum as a result of the pandemic.

PEPP-PT said today it has seven governments signed up to apply its approach to national apps, with a claimed pipeline of a further 40 in discussions about joining.

“We know of seven countries that have already committed to do this — and we’re currently in conversation with 40 countries that are in various states of onboarding.”

“We will have an app soon and obviously it will be based on this model,” he said, offering no further details.

PEPP-PT’s core “privacy-preserving” claim rests on the use of system architectures that do not require location data to be collected. Rather devices that come near each other would share pseudonymized IDs — which could later be used to send notifications to an individual if the system calculates an infection risk has occurred. An infected individual’s contacts would be uploaded at the point of diagnosis — allowing notifications to be sent to other devices with which had come into contact.

That intervention, by the only two smartphone platforms that matter when the ambition is mainstream adoption, is a major development — putting momentum behind decentralized contacts tracing for responding digitally to the coronavirus crisis in the Western world, certainly at the platform level.

In a resolution passed today the European parliament also called for a decentralized approach to COVID-19 proximity tracking.

MEPs are pushing for the Commission and Member States to be “fully transparent on the functioning of contact tracing apps, so that people can verify both the underlying protocol for security and privacy and check the code itself to see whether the application functions as the authorities are claiming.” (The Commission has previously signaled a preference for decentralization too.)

However, backers of PEPP-PT, which include at least seven governments (and the claim of many more), aren’t giving up on the option of a “privacy-preserving” centralized option — which some in their camp are dubbing “pseudo-decentralized�� — with Boos claiming today that discussions are ongoing with Apple and Google about making changes to their approach.

There are also (intentional) restrictions on how contacts tracing data could be centralized, as a result of the relay server model being deployed in the joint Apple-Google model.

“We very much appreciate that Google and Apple are stepping up to making the operating system layer available — or putting what should be the OS actually there, which is the Bluetooth measurement and the handling of crypto and the background running of such tasks which have to keep running resiliently all the time — if you look at their protocols and if you look at whom they are provided by, the two dominant players in the mobile ecosystem, then I think that from a government perspective especially, or from lots of government perspectives, there are many open points to discuss,” said Boos today.

“From a PEPP-PT perspective there are a few points to discuss because we want choice and implementing choice in terms of model — decentralized or centralized on top of their protocol creates actually the worst of both worlds — so there are many points to discuss. But contrary to the behavior that many of us who work with tech companies are used to Google and Apple are very open in these discussions and there’s no point in getting up in arms yet because these discussions are ongoing and it looks like agreement can be reached with them.”

We reached out to Apple and Google with questions about the claimed discussions with PEPP-PT. At the time of writing, neither had responded.

Coindesk reported on the silent edit to PEPP-PT’s website yesterday.

Backers of DP-3T have also repeatedly queried why PEPP-PT hasn’t published code or protocols for review to-date — and even gone so far as to dub the effort a “trojan horse.”

PEPP-PT is a Trojan horse.

— Michael Veale (@mikarv) April 16, 2020

“They’ve still not said exactly how their system would work, so I can’t say what they would need [in terms of changes to Apple and Google’s system],” he told us in an email exchange.

Today Boos couched the removal of the reference to DP-3T on PEPP-PT’s website as a mistake — which he blamed on “bad communication.” He also claimed the coalition is still interested in including the former’s decentralized protocol within its bundle of standardized technologies. So the already sometimes fuzzy lines between the camps continue to be redrawn. (It’s also interesting to note that press emails to Boos are now being triaged by Hering Schuppener, a communications firm that sells publicity services, including crisis PR.)

Boos also said PEPP-PT would finally be publishing some technical documents this afternoon — opting to release information some three weeks after its public unveiling and on a Friday evening (a seven-page ‘high level overview’ has since been put on their GitHub here [this link has since been deleted – Ed.] — but still a far cry from code for review) — while making a simultaneous plea for journalists to focus on the “bigger picture” of fighting the coronavirus rather than keep obsessing over technical details.

During today’s webinar some of the scientists backing PEPP-PT talked about how they’re testing the efficacy of Bluetooth as a proxy for tracking infection risk.

“Auditing can be done in many different ways for each system but that step is crucial.”

None of the PEPP-PT-aligned apps that are currently being used for testing or reference are interfacing with national health authority systems, per Boos — though he cited a test in Italy that’s been plugged into a company’s health system to run tests.

The HHI’s executive director, Thomas Wiegand, was also on today’s call. Notably, his name initially appeared on the authorship list for the DP-3T’s white paper. However, on April 10 he was removed from the README and authorship list, per its GitHub document history. No explanation for the change was given.

The press conference had an even more inauspicious start after the Zoom call was disrupted by racist spam in the chat field. Right before that Boos had kicked off the call saying he had heard from “some more technically savvy people that we should not be using Zoom because it’s insecure — and for an initiative that wants security and privacy it’s the wrong tool.”

#Miscellaneous

0 notes

recentanimenews · 7 years

Text

FEATURE: Cooking With Anime - Dragon Tail from "Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid"

Dragon tail...no, no. Not the formative children's show you probably watched in your youth (at least in America). No, today we're talking about Dragon TAIL, as in, the appendage (is that the right terminology?) found on mythical (are they, though?) creatures.

In the first episode of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, the titular dragon is trying to prove that she can earn her keep as a maid for Miss Kobayashi. Very adorably, she proves herself competent at a variety of house skills, such as cleaning and doing laundry. She can even remove poisons from large hunks of meat! Why would she need that skill, you might ask? Well, because she decides to cook up HER OWN TAIL, which is naturally poisonous.

Which brings me to this blog post today. I needed to make a dragon's tail. More importantly, I first needed to find a dragon's tail. But where does one get a dragon's tail?

The answer is, of course, that dragons are so rare and mythical that you can't actually buy dragon meat in the grocery store. Since I am severely lacking in the tools and skills necessary to hunt down an actual dragon, I turned to Twitter to find the closest substitute possible.

All my Twitter pals were very helpful in highlighting a type of meat that is so far out of the possibility for me, it might as well be actual dragon meat. Not that I didn't appreciate the help- I found it to be quite fun to speculate as to how many calories a dragon would burn while flying vs walking. And alligator tail sounded like a great idea. The thing is... I don't know about where you live, but in California, ALLIGATOR MEAT IS NOT A NORMAL SELECTION AT THE GROCERY STORE.

In fact, a lot of meat is not available at the typical grocery store in California, likely because a lot of people in California like to eat vegetables and fruits and things of that nature. Also, I live in a college town, where the majority of people here will settle for a cold Chipotle burrito due to their inability to boil water on their own. It's a rather small college town, so even for the people who can cook, the selection is limited because demand is, as outlined above, not exactly high for rare and speciality meats.

All of this has only convinced me more that I need to move to a more populated part of the state.

So, what was I to do? I decided to wander Whole Foods, the store with the best meat selection in town, to see what they had in the way of extremely large hunks of meat. And, the only thing I could find that would fit the bill was a chuck roast. Not exactly the most impressive of meats. To be clear, if I had more of a choice, I would have gone with a different cut of meat. I think a veal shank, though a little small, would make for a great selection. But, with very little options, I used what was available to produce a truly delicious "dragon tail" recipe. The meat, roasted to juicy, succulent perfection, is garnished with a bright green herb sauce that evokes the green scales of a dragon. If you wanted, you could even mix in edible gold glitter (which I have, and which I am honestly kicking myself for not including) to make it sparkle and shimmer, sort of like the sauce from the anime. Even better, the whole dish is actually pretty easy to make, since most of it involves waiting around for the huge chunk of meat to cook.

Check out the video below for a visual on instructions. Ingredients and picture instructions are listed just below.

youtube

Ingredients

Magic Green Sauce:

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch flat leaf parsley

~1 tbs fresh oregano

~1 tbs fresh thyme

~1 tbs fresh taragon

~3 cloves fresh garlic

~3/4 cup olive oil

Salt to taste

"Dragon Tail":

3 lb Chuck Roast

3 cups beef stock

Onion (optional)

Carrots (optional)

Salt + Pepper

Magic Green Sauce

Olive oil

To Make:

1. Preheat the oven to 275 Fahrenheit for the roast. Roast the pepper over a flame, or in the oven, until skin is blistered.

Put all ingredients for Magic Green Sauce, except for oilve oil and salt, into a food processor and blend together. When finely chopped, Drizzle olive oil in until the consistency is to your preference. Flavor with salt.

2. If using, roughly chop onion and carrots to cook with the meat.

4. Season each side of the roast with salt and pepper.

5. Heat up some olive oil in a dutch oven. Brown the onions, about 3 minutes, and then brown carrots, about 2-3 minutes. Set vegetables aside on a plate.

6. Add more olive oil to the pan and bring up to a very high heat. Sear each side of the roast, ~1 minute per side, until nicely browned. Then, set aside on a plate.

7. Pour about 1 cup of beef broth into the bottom of the pan, and deglaze the pan with a whisk by vigorously rubbing up all the browned spots left on the bottom of the pan by the vegetables and meat.

8. Put meat back in, and surround with vegetables. Pour beef stock in until it comes up halfway to the top of the roast. Sprinkle fresh herbs on the vegetables. Use the Magic Green Sauce to season the top of the roast.

9. Place in the oven ~3 hours, or until it is tender and falls apart easily when attacked by a fork.

10. Remove from pan, and cut into slices. Garnish with more Magic Green Sauce. And now it's done!!

I hope you enjoyed this post! Check in next week for another recipe. To check out more anime food recipes, visit my blog for more anime and manga themed food. If you have any questions or comments, leave them below! I recently got a twitter, so you can follow me at @yumpenguinsnack if you would like, and DEFINITELY feel free to send me food requests! My tumblr is yumpenguinsnacks.tumblr.com. Find me on Youtube for more video tutorials! Enjoy the food, and if you decide to recreate this dish, show me pics! :D

In case you missed it, check out our last dish: Giant Burger and Fries from: "ACCA: 13 Territory Inspection Department. What other famous anime dishes would you like to see Emily make on COOKING WITH ANIME?

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

1 note · View note

sheminecrafts · 4 years

Text

Europe’s PEPP-PT COVID-19 contacts tracing standard push could be squaring up for a fight with Apple and Google

PEPP-PT said today it has seven governments signed up to apply its approach to national apps, with a claimed pipeline of a further 40 in discussions about joining.

“We know of seven countries that have already committed to do this — and we’re currently in conversation with 40 countries that are in various states of onboarding.”

“We will have an app soon and obviously it will be based on this model,” he said, offering no further details.

In a resolution passed today the European parliament also called for a decentralized approach to COVID-19 proximity tracking.

However, backers of PEPP-PT, which include at least seven governments (and the claim of many more), aren’t giving up on the option of a “privacy-preserving” centralized option — which some in their camp are dubbing “pseudo-decentralized” — with Boos claiming today that discussions are ongoing with Apple and Google about making changes to their approach.

There are also (intentional) restrictions on how contacts tracing data could be centralized, as a result of the relay server model being deployed in the joint Apple-Google model.

“We very much appreciate that Google and Apple are stepping up to making the operating system layer available — or putting what should be the OS actually there, which is the Bluetooth measurement and the handling of crypto and the background running of such tasks which have to keep running resiliently all the time — if you look at their protocols and if you look at whom they are provided by, the two dominant players in the mobile ecosystem, then I think that from a government perspective especially, or from lots of government perspectives, there are many open points to discuss,” said Boos today.

We reached out to Apple and Google with questions about the claimed discussions with PEPP-PT. At the time of writing, neither had responded.

Coindesk reported on the silent edit to PEPP-PT’s website yesterday.

Backers of DP-3T have also repeatedly queried why PEPP-PT hasn’t published code or protocols for review to-date — and even gone so far as to dub the effort a “trojan horse.”

PEPP-PT is a Trojan horse.

— Michael Veale (@mikarv) April 16, 2020

“They’ve still not said exactly how their system would work, so I can’t say what they would need [in terms of changes to Apple and Google’s system],” he told us in an email exchange.

Boos also said PEPP-PT would finally be publishing some technical documents this afternoon — opting to release information some three weeks after its public unveiling and on a Friday evening (a seven-page ‘high level overview’ has since been put on their GitHub here [this link has since been deleted – Ed.] — but still a far cry from code for review) — while making a simultaneous plea for journalists to focus on the “bigger picture” of fighting the coronavirus rather than keep obsessing over technical details.

During today’s webinar some of the scientists backing PEPP-PT talked about how they’re testing the efficacy of Bluetooth as a proxy for tracking infection risk.

“Auditing can be done in many different ways for each system but that step is crucial.”

from iraidajzsmmwtv https://ift.tt/3agrPwi via IFTTT

#IFTTT #iraidajzsmmwtv

0 notes

technicalsolutions88 · 4 years

Link

PEPP-PT said today it has seven governments signed up to apply its approach to national apps, with a claimed pipeline of a further 40 in discussions about joining.

“We know of seven countries that have already committed to do this — and we’re currently in conversation with 40 countries that are in various states of onboarding.”

“We will have an app soon and obviously it will be based on this model,” he said, offering no further details.

There are also (intentional) restrictions on how contracts tracing data could be centralized, as a result of the relay server model being deployed in the joint Apple-Google model.

We reached out to Apple and Google with questions about the claimed discussions with PEPP-PT. At the time of writing neither had responded.

Coindesk reported on the silent edit to PEPP-PT’s website yesterday.

Backers of DP-3T have also repeatedly queried why PEPP-PT hasn’t published code or protocols for review to-date — and even gone so far as to dub the effort a ‘trojan horse’.

PEPP-PT is a Trojan horse.

— Michael Veale (@mikarv) April 16, 2020

“They’ve still not said exactly how their system would work, so I can’t say what they would need [in terms of changes to Apple and Google’s system],” he told us in an email exchange.

During today’s webinar some of the scientists backing PEPP-PT talked about how they’re testing the efficacy of Bluetooth as a proxy for tracking infection risk.

“Auditing can be done in many different ways for each system but that step is crucial.”

from Mobile – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3agrPwi ORIGINAL CONTENT FROM: https://techcrunch.com/

#Technical Solutions #SEO #Online Earning #Youtube Marketing #Android Developer

0 notes

mastcomm · 4 years

Text

There’s No Place Like Kangaroo Island. Can It Survive Australia’s Fires?

KANGAROO ISLAND, Australia — Kangaroo Island is Australia in miniature.

It is a wildlife haven, with its own varieties of kangaroos, echidnas (a spiny anteater) and cockatoos, as well as a koala population seen as insurance should disaster strike the species on the mainland. It is a tourism magnet, with luxury cliff-top lodges and beaches studded with sea lions. It is a farming hub, producing veal, wool, grain and honey for purveyors at home and beyond.

Now, Kangaroo Island is unrecognizable.

Wildfires that burned for weeks consumed half of the island — more than 800 square miles. Two people were killed, dozens of homes were destroyed, and wilderness parks were turned to cinders, littering the landscape with animal corpses. In a bush land once teeming with the activity of insects, birds, reptiles and mammals, there is only silence, and the scent of rot.

“Everything is dead,” said Simon Kelly, a farmer who lost more than half of his 9,000 sheep and was burying them in mass graves.

In this season of unimaginable infernos in Australia, perhaps no place is facing more daunting questions about its future than Kangaroo Island.

Tourism operators are fretting over an exodus of visitors during what is normally their busiest time of year, a problem only made worse as the coronavirus sweeping China has kept people from traveling. Farmers who lost everything must now reassemble herds, replace equipment and wait for land to regenerate. Many of the island’s 4,500 residents fear the community will suffer if people go to the mainland for work and never come back.

Before the fires, which raged from December to January, the island’s revenue was split about evenly between tourism and agriculture, with each worth about 180 million Australian dollars, or $124 million, a year, said the mayor, Michael Pengilly.

“This is going to savage both sectors of the economy, and I have major concerns for the social and economic fabric of the island,” he said in an interview. “If we lose people, it means a difference to everything. If you lost 10 families with children, that’s kids out of schools, that’s kids out of sports clubs.”

Everyone here knows that without both industries, the community cannot survive. But the people of Kangaroo Island, which sits just off Australia’s southern coast, are circumspect about their troubles. Farming has always had ups and downs, they say. Mother Nature is unpredictable; fires sometimes flare. They will find a way to rebuild.

Mr. Kelly, whose sheep provided wool and meat locally and on the mainland, was philosophical about his loss. His grandfather cleared trees to build the farm in 1936, and even though nothing like this had ever happened before, he refused to blame anyone for it.

“It’ll set us back a couple of years, but we’ll get over it,” he said, shifting sheets of corrugated steel onto the back of his truck with hands as big as dinner plates. The steel was from a shed that held two jeeps, a motorbike and $20,000 worth of hay, all of which went up in flames.

Not long before the fires, Mr. Kelly had set out golden-colored feed in the paddocks. The 40 miles’ worth of fencing around the property was brand-new. The farm was out of debt, and things had been going well.

“They were the best sheep, the best lambs. It was a good season,” he said. “The whole farm was the best it’d ever been. And we’re going to have to start all over again.”

The sheep, whose wool had gone black from the fires, died from smoke inhalation. Cows trapped together against fences also perished. In drives through paddocks, Mr. Kelly would find more wounded animals to put down, including a koala beyond help that was dispatched with a quick bullet to the head.

For days after the fires, friends would walk up the driveway and help him bury sheep. Mr. Kelly and the volunteers did the same for 10 other nearby farms that had lost everything. “We call ourselves the Dead Sheep Army,” he said.

As the blazes devoured his farm, Mr. Kelly spent a sleepless night shielding his home from exploding trees and flying embers. At least 65 other farmers lost their houses and much of their livestock, he said.

The toll on wildlife has also been terrible on the island, often referred to as Australia’s Galápagos. Since the fires ended, there have been no sightings of the island’s native bee, the green carpenter.

“Unfortunately, if it’s not extinct, it’s close to it,” said Bill Dunlop, the manager of Kangaroo Island Wildlife Park. “Anywhere they would have been living would have been burned.”

About 30 percent of the population of a subspecies of the glossy black cockatoo, which is essentially extinct on the mainland and numbered about 500 on the island, is also gone, Mr. Dunlop said. Thirty to 40 percent of the island’s kangaroos are believed to have died, as well as a third of its 15,000 koalas.

Only weeks ago, koalas were considered pests on the island, devouring vegetation meant for native animals. But now they may be needed more than ever, given the devastation that has struck koala populations on the mainland, in fire-ravaged New South Wales and Victoria.

Other animals on Kangaroo Island are facing questions about their survival: the dunnart, a small, possum-like marsupial; the Rosenberg’s goanna, a lizard for which the island was considered a final stronghold before extinction; and the short-beaked echidna, which was classified as endangered in 2017.

Since the fires, the wildlife park has transformed itself from a tourist attraction into a makeshift animal hospital.

Inside a large white plastic tent one recent day, a volunteer tended to the bleeding paws of a pregnant koala. Nearly all the creatures there had bandaged paws. Some were too stunned or medicated to move; others lashed out in fear and stress at handlers.

Humanitarian groups have also been at work, scouring soot-filled forests to pluck wounded koalas from trees and cut baby kangaroos, called joeys, out of their dead mothers’ pouches.

Sam Mitchell, the wildlife park’s owner, has raised more than $1 million to help care for the wounded animals. But with no tourists around, he has no idea how he will continue to pay his staff, which cares for the 700 animals he owns here.

“The tourism industry is about to die,” he said.

Mr. Pengilly, the island’s immensely popular mayor, has been at the heart of its quest to rebuild, though he briefly gained wider attention for his disapproving reply to a tweet from Barack Obama attributing the bush fires to climate change. He has spent much of his time trying to help his constituents.

When his phone rings, it sends a signal straight to his hearing aid. Since the fires began, he has barely been able to complete a sentence without reaching for his phone.

At a town meeting, he called on every person, by name, who had a question, and he knew the situation of everyone who had faced misfortune over the past few weeks.

“It’s been terrifying for us,” he said.

The fires peeled away so much of the island’s dense scrub that they unmasked hills and other terrain that had been hidden for years. Melted signposts now droop toward the road.

Still, Kangaroo Island is keeping its arms open. Local residents and tourism operators have been at pains to assure the public that there is still much worth seeing. Most of the eastern coast remains pristine, its waters clear and the seafood abundant.

“I think Kangaroo Island will resolve to stay the same, but it will go through a tough time,” Mr. Pengilly said. “I’m confident we’ll get there, but there’s going to be a lot of heartache in the meantime.”

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/theres-no-place-like-kangaroo-island-can-it-survive-australias-fires/

#Event

0 notes

warninggraphiccontent · 4 years

Text

15 May 2020

Losing the plot

When it comes to data visualisation, we all make mistakes. We all need to make mistakes. And the recent revolution in data visualisation is still new enough that it's wonderful to see people trying to use and visualise data. There's a balance to be struck between perfectionist pedantry (I'm still often guilty) and encouraging people to have a go. Therefore, I try not to criticise people for slightly substandard charts.

I made an exception this week. We should expect better from government. And poor visualisation is just one aspect of the government's muddled communication of the numbers.

Elsewhere:

The government's coronavirus recovery strategy had (only) a couple of interesting references to data: a vague reference to 'robust safety measures' when it came to contact tracing - we should expect more, quickly, especially since (as Peter points out) the reference to Asian countries raises more questions than it answers - and a vague reference to rewiring the state. Much more from the IfG on the coronavirus crisis and lifting lockdown restrictions here.

People are still updating our collaborative spreadsheet on data-related developments, transparency things and mortality stats (thank you!). Find it here - further additions always welcome.

My former colleague Nicole is now at the Royal College of Nursing, and she's recruiting - take a look at the ads for Digital Content Officer and Senior Media Officer.

On the subject of nursing... it was Florence Nightingale's birthday this week, the Lady with the Lamp also being a pioneer in the use and visualisation of data. Some bonus links below.

And another anniversary - it was International Dylan Thomas Day yesterday, marking the premiere of Under Milk Wood. Which is as good an excuse as any to revisit the West Glamorgan Youth Theatre Company's lockdown production of the opening scene, starring various people who can actually act, and me.

Have a lovely weekend

Gavin

Today's links:

Flo charts

Happy 200th birthday #FlorenceNightingale! (Royal Society)

Florence Nightingale is a Design Hero (Nightingale)

Florence Nightingale the Angel of the Crimea (British Library)

International Nurses Day: what would Florence do on the COVID-19 front line? (Nursing Standard)

Special issue: Florence Nightingale (Significance)

Tips, tech, etc

The new rules to living in lockdown (The Observer)

Presentations post-Covid? (Matt Jukes)

Free-Range Working (Convivio)

In cycling there’s a thing called a “false flat” (@Lesley_NOPE)

Easing physical and mental strain in the workplace (Open Access Government)

Keeping our employees and partners safe during #coronavirus (Twitter)

What we’ve learned about mental health during lockdown (Prospect)

Graphic content

Viral content: cases

Coronavirus tracked: the latest figures as countries fight to contain the pandemic (FT)

NHK conducted an experiment to see how germs spread at a cruise buffet (via Spoon & Tamago)

Where U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise (Reuters)

Without A Vaccine, Herd Immunity Won’t Save Us (FiveThirtyEight)

Majority black counties see triple the Covid death rate* (Bloomberg)

Coronavirus Australia data update: Covid-19 active and new cases, numbers, map and statistics (The Guardian)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) related deaths by occupation, England and Wales: deaths registered up to and including 20 April 2020 (ONS)

Russia’s Covid death toll could be 70 per cent higher than official figure* (FT)

Nowcasting and Forecasting of COVID-19 (MRC Biostatistics Unit, University of Cambridge)

Viral content: the economy

How bad is unemployment? Literally off the charts* (New York Times)

Invidious choices await Sunak in tackling cost of virus crisis* (FT)

One month, 20.5 million jobs lost (Reuters)

Why 1.4 Million Health Jobs Have Been Lost During a Huge Health Crisis* (The Upshot)

Viral content: lifting lockdown

Disease modelers are wary of reopening the country. Here’s how they arrive at their verdict.* (Washington Post)

Americans’ Commitment to Social Distancing Is Eroding* (Bloomberg)

Lifting lockdown: what Britain can learn from the rest of the world* (The Times, via Cath)

London is most vulnerable to coronavirus outbreak in the UK* (FT)

Phone data identify travel hubs at risk of a second wave of infections* (The Economist)

Britain on the move even before Johnson eased lockdown, data show* (FT)

Getting Britain working (safely) again (Resolution Foundation)

What would happen if Londoners tried to go back to normal on a socially-distanced Underground? (The Guardian)

Viral content: everything else

This is live @CitizensAdvice web traffic from 7- 7:35 pm (i.e. #borisspeech) (Gemma)

A Study Said Covid Wasn’t That Deadly. The Right Seized It.* (New York Times)

COVID19 Grants Tracker (360Giving)

A Pandemic That Cleared Skies and Halted Cities Isn’t Slowing Global Warming* (Bloomberg)

Facemasks: would you wear one? (Behavioural Insights Team)

Anti-viral content

GDP first quarterly estimate, UK: January to March 2020 (ONS)

Freedom of information (Oliver for IfG)

The civil service after Brexit: lessons from the Article 50 period (Maddy, Haydon and Joe for IfG - charts here)

What Does Opportunity Look Like Where You Live?* (New York Times)

What's at stake in Britain's post-Brexit trade talks? (The Guardian)

#dataviz

Poor chart rating for the government’s coronavirus communications strategy (me for IfG)

The dataviz in the PM's statement... (Mark Edwards)

Someone who is good at equations please help me (Policy Sketchbook)

Counting the human cost of Covid-19: 'Numbers tell a story words can't' (The Guardian)

Visualising Odds Ratio (Henry Lau)

A plan for accessible charts (Benjy Stanton)

How data journalists became the rock stars of news (BBC Sounds)

EXPLORE EXPLAIN S1 E3: JOHN BURN-MURDOCH (Visualising Data)

Meta data

Viral content: contact details (UK)

The code behind the NHS Covid-19 App (NHSX)

Also FAQs, DPIA (via Jim Killock)

UK starts to build second contact tracing app* (FT)

UK could switch to a different contact tracing app, says minister* (FT)

NHS coronavirus advisory board split over ditching government app (The Guardian)

Just how anonymous is the NHS Covid-19 contact tracing app?* (Wired)

Secret NHS files reveal plans for coronavirus contact tracing app* (Wired)

To trust the contact tracing app, we need safeguards* (Harriet Harman for The Times)

Harman seeks to bring private member’s bill over contact tracing* (Computer Weekly)

Analysis of the NHSX Contact Tracing App ‘Isle of Wight’ Data Protection Impact Assessment (Michael Veale)

Who governs? Platform privilege, contact tracing and APIs. (Richard Pope)

The tech firms getting their hands on NHS patient data to fight coronavirus (The Bureau of Investigative Journalism)

Coronavirus: Send virus alerts within 24 hours or risk second wave, scientist warns (Sky News)

Coronavirus contact tracing at risk unless vital info shared with councils (Local Government Association)

Only 50% of Britons would download NHS tracing app – poll (The Observer)

Workplace testing – guidance for employers (ICO)

Viral content: contact details (international)

How Europe splintered over contact tracing apps* (FT)

A flood of coronavirus apps are tracking us. Now it’s time to keep track of them.* (MIT Technology Review, via Alice)

India made its contact tracing app mandatory. Now people are angry* (Wired)

Nearly 40% of Icelanders are using a covid app—and it hasn’t helped much* (MIT Technology Review)

How Google and Apple outflanked governments in the race to build coronavirus apps (Politico)

Viral content: lies, damn lies, and...

The government’s daily briefings on #Covid_19 are "not trustworthy communication of statistics" says Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter (Andrew Marr Show)

Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 threat alert system is a parody of mathematical precision* (New Statesman)

Sir David Norgrove letter to Matt Hancock regarding COVID-19 testing (UKSA)

There’s always a “but”: why Covid-19 statistics never tell the whole story* (Prospect)

The armchair epidemiologists (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Viral content: what's a pirate's favourite epidemiological number?

R: A thread on real-time estimation and false precision... (Adam Kucharski)

The R-number – and the danger of false certainty* (The Spectator)

We should be very wary of the R value (UnHerd)

Viral content: everything else

Understanding the impact of coronavirus on the workforce (ONS)

Coronavirus: record ethnicity on all death certificates to start building a clearer picture (The Conversation)

Want to know how relevant the new government guidance on walking and cycling is to your area? I've got census data and ranked local authorities by public transport to work mode share (Jack Maizels, via Lee)

UK Data for Assessing COVID-19 Activity (CEBM, University of Oxford)

Why we cannot afford to leave technology to the experts – the case for public engagement at times of crisis (Ada Lovelace Institute)

Exclusive: Test data from commercial labs going into ‘black hole’ (HSJ)

Goodhart’s law comes back to haunt the UK’s Covid strategy* (FT)

The pandemic has spawned a new way to study medical records* (The Economist)

Viral misinformation

This Woman Says Her Photos Were Stolen In A Viral Post About The COVID-19 Death Of Her Uncle David. She Doesn’t Have An Uncle David. (BuzzFeed)

‘Conspiracy bingo’: Trans-Atlantic extremists seize on the pandemic (Politico)

Platform announcements

How Government as a Platform is meeting challenges posed by coronavirus (GDS)

Scaling up GOV.UK Verify to help during coronavirus (GDS)

DWP takes centre stage in future of Gov.uk Verify (Computer Weekly)

HM Treasury tells GDS: No further online services can use Gov.uk Verify (Computer Weekly)

Anti-viral content

People, Power and Technology 2020 (Doteveryone)

Launch event video (Doteveryone)

Better Redress for the Digital Age (Doteveryone)

The Online Resolution Service: a prototype of a shared platform for online complaints (Doteveryone)

UK police adopting facial recognition, predictive policing without public consultation (Verdict)

Machine Intelligence Garage Ethics Framework (Digital Catapult)

Facebook is quietly helping to set up a new pro-tech advocacy group to battle Washington* (Washington Post)

Rest of World: Reporting Global Tech Stories

Smart Cities in a time of crisis - London calling with an open data focus (diginomica)

Alphabet Spinoff SIP Aims To ‘Future Proof’ Infrastructure With Tech & $400M Series A (Crunchbase)

Don’t Regulate Artificial Intelligence: Starve It (Scientific American)

Digital transformation in the NHS (NAO)

Using FOI to protect social housing and council property (mySociety)

Opportunities

JOB: Data Journalist (DfT, via Quantum of Sollazzo)

JOB: Beneficial Technology, Analyst (Omidyar Network)

JOB: Help us be bolder using technology for good (Citizens Advice)

JOB: Lead User Researcher (Parliamentary Digital Service)

Call for IRM Local and National Researchers (Open Government Partnership)

GRANT: Next Generation Internet (NGI) Policy-in-Practice Fund (Nesta)

EVENTS: REIMAGINING GOVERNMENT: AN ANZSOG AND CENTRE FOR PUBLIC IMPACT SERIES

EVENT: Public Health Interventions, Data, and Privacy: Countering COVID-19 with Technology and Trust. (The Alan Turing Institute)

And finally...

Viral content

School teacher hilariously marks government’s lockdown chart (The London Economic, via Pritesh)

Things to do while #StayingHome... (Microsoft 365)

DIY hairdressers under covid-19 lockdown tend it like Beckham* (The Economist)

Anti-viral content

Global population density (Alasdair Rae)

State topographic maps (via Randy Olson)

I was bored. (Stephen Bush, via Alice)

Enormouse data (Martin Lewis)

colors.lol

0 notes